Hardy Fox
]] '''Hardy Winfred Fox Jr. '(1945-2018) was the long-time producer, engineer and composer for The Residents, as well as a founding member of The Cryptic Corporation, of which he was president from 1982 until his retirement in 2016. Fox began a characteristically prolific solo recording career following his retirement, which continued until shortly before his death on October 30th 2018, following a short battle with glioblastoma. Biography , 2019]] Origins (1945-1969) Fox was born and raised in East Texas in 1945. Fox grew up with two sisters. He enrolled in college at Louisiana Tech in Ruston, Louisiana, in the early 1960s, where he was assigned to share a dormitory with Homer Flynn (who originated from Shreveport). The two became fast friends, forming a loose "anti-fraternity fraternity" nicknamed "Delta Nu" with a number of like-minded friends, including Barry and Palmer Eiland, John Kennedy, Jay Clem, and the people who would later become The Residents - Randy Rose, Charles Bobuck, and "Bunny" Hartley. Fox began his career in music management in the mid 1960s, when he briefly managed a group named The Alliance, whose members included future collaborator and multi-instrumentalist Roland Sheehan. Around this time Fox met the members of Jefferson Airplane. Fox and Flynn moved to San Mateo, California in the late 1960s, and Fox began recording the efforts of the fledgling "Delta Nu" group, who by this time included Sheehan, and were experimenting for the first time with musical improvisation and sound collage. The Delta Nudes / Residents, Uninc. (1969-1972) The Pre-Residents, recently reunited in San Mateo, recorded a number of rough, but promising demo reels including jams, chatter between the group, loose attempts at contemporary pop singles, and a number of coarse but charming originals. Two of these early tape items, known to fans by the names ''The Ballad of Stuffed Trigger and ''Rusty Coathangers for the Doctor'', were completely unheard outside of The Residents and their friends for fifty years, until low-quality copies leaked onto the internet in the 2010s. In 1971, Fox began a lengthy correspondence with Warner Bros. Records executive Hal Halverstadt, which began with the group sending him a copy of their demo tape The Warner Bros. Album. The unsuspecting Halverstadt, who had signed Captain Beefheart to Warner Bros. some years earlier, returned the anonymous demo tape (marked with an "A for Ariginality") addressed to "The Residents". The then-nameless group eventually would adopt this as their official name. In 1972, Fox and Flynn assisted The Residents in releasing their debut EP, Santa Dog, by helping them to form Ralph Records in conjunction with Clem and Kennedy. This partnership would eventually lead to the creation of The Cryptic Corporation in 1976. The Cryptic Corporation (1976-2016) The Cryptic Corporation was formed by Fox and Flynn with Clem and Kennedy in 1976, around the time of the release of The Residents' second album The Third Reich 'n Roll, when The Residents decided they wanted a management team to handle their business so that they could focus their efforts on developing their music. Fox had already been acting as the group's engineer, producer and arranger for several years, and Flynn had been producing the group's album covers and promotional art through his graphic design company Porno Graphics. These efforts immediately were absorbed into the new corporation, as was day-to-day operation of Ralph Records. Solo discography * Black Tar - 13 Tiny Tunes for Hallow's Eve (with Charles Bobuck) (2016) * Eggs For Breakfast (Eggsistential Thoughts Volume 1) (with Charles Bobuck) (2016) * Egg Booty (Eggsistential Thoughts Volume 2) (with Charles Bobuck) (2016) * Wallpaper (with Charles Bobuck) (2017) * Hardy Fox ''(or "''Heart") (2018) * A Day Hanging Dead Between Heaven and Earth (with Fred Frith) (2018) * Nachtzug (2018) * Rilla Contemplates Love (2018) * 25 Minus Minutes (2019) See also * The Cryptic Corporation * Hacienda Bridge * Charles Bobuck External links * Official website * Hacienda Bridge newsletter archive Category:The Residents Category:The Cryptic Corporation Category:Collaborators Category:Hardy Fox